BRADFORD BULLS coach Brian Noble noted the nilling of neighbours Keighley as he urged his players to keep building during pre-season.
The legendary coach, who has begun a second spell at the club he led to an array of honours in the first half of the noughties, says solid defence is one of his main mantras.
So while quick to point out that at this stage, both sides remain a work in progress, he was pleased that the shutters were put up as the Cougars were beaten 26-0 in a pre-Christmas clash for the Joe Phillips Memorial Trophy (the Kiwi fullback played for both clubs).
Noble, who fielded new signings Waqa Blake, James Meadows, Joe Keyes, Matty Gee, Emmanuel Waine, Ronan Michael and Mason Corbett and, as a triallist, former Leeds and Hull FC winger Liam Tindall, who was loaned to the Bulls last season, said: “I am not one to get carried away after a game on December 22.
“But we had a lot of enthusiastic people out there, with enthusiastic people to come into the team, and we looked dominant both physically and technically.
“One of our mantras is defence, and you have to defend well to stay in the team.
“We haven’t done a lot of contact work in training, other than indoors, which is completely different to playing a game.
“We haven’t done much of things like getting up off the ground either, so it is particularly pleasing not to concede.”
Noble, who hailed the performance of Academy-produced fullback George Rayner, added: “It is really important to keep our feet on the ground because there is a lot of work still to do, such as not giving penalties away when fatigue sets in and finishing our sets.
“However, if we maintain our willingness to improve, and we heard that from the players afterwards, then it can only augur well for us, so it was a good day with plenty of positive signs.”
